What to Do When Your Car Refuses to Accelerate

Doing rabbit starts is not a good way to get proper acceleration, but there are other times when your automobile just refuses to increase speed. It can be a problem if you are going down the entry ramp onto a highway, when having proper acceleration is going to be a safety issue. There are some reasons why your car is not going fast. Fortunately, some of the problems are not that complicated to fix.

Fuel Filter

Perhaps the simplest reason is the fuel filter. A fuel filter which is clogged is not going to send efficient fuel to the engine. It makes it that much harder to increase speed when you have to have it done. It is a simple problem to resolve. You can check the fuel filter and clean it or have it changed.

Timing belt & Emergency brake

Your car relies on a mixture of air and fuel to produce necessary energy. It is the timing belt which assures the proper amount of air mixes with gasoline. Problems with the timing belt can result in bad acceleration. As a matter of fact, poor acceleration can be a warning sign that the timing belt needs to repair as soon as possible. The emergency brake on the car is often used by the owner when parking on an incline. Something to look at immediately if there is an acceleration issue is whether or not the emergency brake is engaged.

Electronic components

A modern car is very reliant on the electronic system, with sensors providing information to the engine. While it makes the automobile operate, the same electronic system can become faulty. Auto air pollution is a critical issue, and the electronic system will raise an alert if an unacceptable level of fumes is produced. A glitch in the system can accidentally tell the engine computer too much air pollution is being emitted, and this will affect the amount of fuel going into the engine. Reducing the amount of fuel is going to result in the car moving slower than desired. The electronic throttle might cause a problem. A malfunction there will lead to the computer closing. What happens next will be the computer generating some error codes. These will, in turn, cause the Check Engine Light to light up and the car is deliberately going much slower. The gross intake manifold may allow too much air to go into the system. It affects the air to gasoline mixture, reduces the amount of gasoline going into the engine, and consequently make it difficult to accelerate.

Transmission system

A major problem will be in the transmission system. The mechanical flaw may cause the clutch not to engage the gearbox as it is required to do. The result is a car that is not accelerating properly at all. This is the kind of problem that you cannot ignore. Lack of acceleration is a key warning sign that the transmission started to have some serious difficulties. You have to arrange for at least an inspection of the transmission as soon as you possibly can.

Don’t ignore acceleration problems

As mentioned earlier, acceleration problems can be safety issues. If you’re experiencing a challenge in getting your car to move faster, this is not something you can simply ignore. It is a matter that will not go away. The chances of severe accidents would increase the longer you try to ignore what happens. Most car owners do not fully understand the mechanics of the car. They will concentrate perhaps on one possible source of the difficulty while ignoring what is the issue at hand. That can cause other aggravations to surface.

Visit a reputable auto service center

You have to accept the fact you don’t know everything about an automobile. Checking on acceleration issues is something that you need to leave the expert hands of a trained auto mechanic. A reputable auto service center is going to have skilled technicians and workers on staff. What is even better is the diagnostic equipment on the property. The diagnostics can cut down on the time needed to identify where the problem is acceleration. It may not be an expensive repair to do it all. A simple fuel filter cleaning or change is not going to cost a lot of money. If there is an expense which is a little bit higher, you should not hesitate to pay for a very simple reason. The question of safety is involved whenever your car does not properly accelerate. You want to be sure that you can get to the right speed when you need to do that.